Lohan lawyer quits as actress heads for prison

Robert Shapiro, the top American lawyer who famously helped defend OJ Simpson against a charge of murdering his wife, has withdrawn his services from Lindsay Lohan on the eve of the actress booking in at a Beverly Hills courthouse to begin a 90-day jail term.

Court records show that Shapiro resigned his commission to defend Lohan yesterday afternoon.

Shapiro has not explained why he ran out on the troubled Mean Girls actress. However, before taking her on, he said publicly that he would only represent her if she followed his instructions and agreed to the prison term imposed by Judge Marsha Revel earlier this month.

The fact that he has quit raised speculation in Los Angeles that Lohan might have wanted to make a last-ditch appeal against her sentence, due to start today.

Lohan received the sentence for breaching the terms of a probation order following a drink-driving conviction. She also failed to attend an alcohol addiction clinic.

Although her 90-day sentence is likely to be commuted to 20-25 days with good behaviour, Lohan wrote the following tweet last night: “The only ‘bookings’ that i'm familiar with are Disney Films, never thought that i'd be ‘booking’ into Jail... eeeks.”

The 24-year-old actress hired Shapiro - once a member of OJ’s 1995 ‘Dream Team’ of defence lawyers - after her previous representative, Shawn Chapman Holley, reportedly quit.

As well as hiring Shapiro, Lohan also checked in to his Pickford Lofts “rehabilitation facility”. Shapiro set up the addiction treatment centre after his son, Brent, died of a drugs overdose. ·